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The relationship between native American Indians and the Whites
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The relationship between native American Indians and the Whites
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During the second half of the 17th century, Indian-White relations were extremely volatile. The White population was booming and many wanted to claim a piece of the new land as their own. The Whites also felt that they were superior and had a sense of entitlement. They believed that the land and resources were for the taking, without much regard for the Indians. Along with taking the land, the Whites felt that the Indians should conform to their way of life and beliefs. This increased tension between the Whites and Indians- with increased instances of violence, attacks, and disputes. The Indians felt that the Whites were coming in and taking over the land of their ancestors, without regard. The increased population was also depleting the natural resources of the land. The Indians learned from the Whites that by banding together they were stronger and could present a “show of force” when attacking the settlements. The Indians feared that if they did not take action, there would be nothing left for them (Roark et al., 2012, 103). The Indians were, consequently, forced to fight to maintain their way of life. Whites attempted to …show more content…
force religion on the Indians, which is the exact same religious persecution the Whites sought in new land. In 1677, due to the high amount of conflict, the Covenant Chain was developed.
The Convenient Chain was an alliance between Indian tribes (e.g.- Iroquois Confederacy) and settlers (e.g.- Dutch and New England) for peace treaties and trade agreements. The purpose of the alliance was to allow the Indians to maintain their traditions, laws and beliefs, but also simultaneously allow the Settlers to maintain their culture, laws and religion. This agreement established many important issues such as trade, settlement areas and how conflicts would be resolved. (Caskey, 2001). As time went on, the individual states began struggling to agree amongst themselves on the details of the Alliance. Edmund Andros hoped to renew this alliance by striking an agreement between the Iroquois and England, with unifying the separated
settlement. In 1688, Edmund Andros met with the Iroquois Indians. In this meeting, he offended the Iroquois by referring to them as "children" (implying subservience to the English), rather than "brethren" to imply equality (Lustig, 2002, 176). Unlike most of the settlers who wanted to fight with the Indians and eradicate them, Andros believed both could co-exist peacefully. Despite thinking both could coexist, he acted superior and did not treat the Indians as equals. The Indians simply wanted to be respected. The Indians were willing to let the Whites live there too, as long as they respected their land, beliefs, and way of life. This alliance allowed continued peace between the Indians and the White settlers well into the late 18th century.
To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.
Berkhoffer, Robert F., The White Man’s Indian, 1978, Random House, Inc., New York, 261, nonfiction.
Growing up Black Elk and his friends were already playing the games of killing the whites and they waited impatiently to kill and scalp the first Wasichu, and bring the scalp to the village showing how strong and brave they were. One could only imagine what were the reasons that Indians were bloody-minded and brutal to the whites. After seeing their own villages, where...
The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.
“ [They] spent most of the conquest and colonial periods reacting and responding to the European strangers and invaders” (99). Both sides were different in many ways; Their communication, transportation, culture, and the way they survived differentiate the Europeans from the Native Americans. They both acted as wisely as they could when this encounters began after the discovery. “[Tribes] worked mightily and often cleverly to maximize their political sovereignty, cultural autonomy, territorial integrity, power of self identification, and physical nobility” (100). The Europeans were stronger, had better technology, better weapons, and had plenty of experience fighting people like the Native Americans. They could have easily conquer them , but they had a problem of resources, reinforcements and survival. Native American were many but they lacked the knowledge and experience of war and evolution. Europeans were technologically evolved and were experienced at fighting wars, but they ...
...igger people get mean and start to defend what they think is legally theirs. These little quarrels often ended in big trouble and sometimes even war with native people or other countries like England.
The Indians were being confined to crowed reservations that were poorly run, had scarce game, alcohol was plentiful, the soil was poor, and the ancient religious practices were prohibited. The Indians were not happy that they had been kicked off there land and were now forced to live on a reservation. The Indians then began to Ghost Dance a form of religion it is said that if the Indians were to do this trance like dance the country would be cleansed of white intruders. Also dead ancestors and slaughtered buffalo would return and the old ways would be reborn in a fruitful land. Once the Bureau of Indian affairs noticed what was going on they began to fear this new religion would lead to warfare. The white peoplewere scared that this new dance was a war dance. They called for army protection. Army was called in to try to curbed this new religion before it could start a war.
The removal of Indian tribes was one of the tragic times in America’s history. Native Americans endured hard times when immigrants came to the New World. Their land was stolen, people were treated poorly, tricked, harassed, bullied, and much more. The mistreatment was caused mostly by the white settlers, who wanted the Indians land. The Indians removal was pushed to benefit the settlers, which in turn, caused the Indians to be treated as less than a person and pushed off of their lands. MOREEE
Beginning in the 1860s and lasting until the late 1780s, government policy towards Native Americans was aggressive and expressed zero tolerance for their presence in the West. In the last 1850s, tribal leaders and Americans were briefly able to compromise on living situations and land arrangements. Noncompliance by Americans, however, resumed conflict. The beginning of what would be called the "Indian Wars" started in Minnesota in 1862. Sioux, angered by the loss of much of their land, killed 5 white Americans. What resulted was over 1,000 deaths, of white and Native Americans. From that point on, American policy was to force Indians off of their land. American troops would force Indian tribe leaders to accept treaties taking their land from them. Protests or resistance by the Indians would result in fighting. On occasion, military troops would even lash out against peaceful Indians. Their aggression became out of control.
The British was in a total war with France, and when they needed ways to fund for their militia, so the British impressed many American soldiers, for example, the impressment of the Chesapeake boat, brought many horrors toward the Americans. The Americans saw the impressment as a threat, pressed the Embargo Act, and was later persuaded by the Warhawks to start war against the British. The British’s main focus was to defeat France, however America came in the way, so the British had no choice, but to fight the Americans. There were many British soldiers stationed to be in a specific place to attack the Americans. The Native Indians thought that their union could be stronger if they had support from the British, so the Native Indians and
You may know them as Native Americans... Indians... American Indians. No matter what their name is, these specific groups of people all fall under the same definition; one of the first groups of people living on North America. So, why did whites come to the West and force them off of their land? The Native American settlements and lifestyle strongly impacted the America's Western expansion of the United States in 1840s. Throughout the American journey, the Indians faced land loss, battles, assimilation, and many other struggles. Although some of these problems were solved, not all issues came to a reasonable solution. From the Sand Creek Massacre, to Americans wiping out major resources, no peace was found between the two groups for a long
First and foremost, the 2 groups had different ideas of how government and leadership should work, and the leaders created a lot of conflict themselves. As said in The Washington Journey on page 87, “Although Indians were to be paid for their land, they often paid very little and sometimes not at all.” This obviously
The Europeans had no apprehension of the Indian's attitude towards property. The Europeans believed that the Indians were nomads and could not have settled communities, which also meant that the Indians were incapable of correctly using the land.thought that by claiming the land they were making the land better. They believed that by claiming the land they would be doing a better job m...
In 1865, there was a least 15 million buffalo, ten years later, fewer than a thousand remained. The army and the Bureau of Indian Affairs went along with and even encouraged the slaughter of the animals. By destroying the buffalo herds, the whites were destroying the Indian’s main source of food and supplies. The only thing the Indians could do was fight to preserve their way of life. There was constant fighting among the Indian and whites as the Indians fought to keep their civilization. Indian often retaliated against the whites for earlier attacks that whites had imposed on them. They often attacked wagon trains, stage coaches, and isolated ranches. When the army became more involved in the fighting, the Indians started to focus on the white soldiers.
The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting for the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives’ grounds.